United Airlines expanded its mask mandate this morning and will now require masks throughout the airport and on young children two and older. To that latter mandate, I can only say that parents better start coaching their young ones in advance!
Masks Now Required At More Places When Traveling On United
Effective July 24th, passengers on United will be required to wear masks at:
- check-in kiosks
- customer service counters
- United Clubs
- gate areas
- baggage claim areas
Currently, masks are only required onboard and while boarding and deplaning.
United will remind passengers of the new requirement when booking, during check-in, and at new signs posted in airports. The issue is somewhat moot because most airports already require passengers to wear masks throughout the travel journey.
United points out that it continues to upgrade aircraft when possible and that though it will pack planes if necessary, less than 15% of flights will operate with a load factor of 70% or more this month. Average load factor is expected to be 45%, down from 57% in June. Translation: stop the “packed flights” narrative.
Children Two And Older Now Required To Wear Masks On United
Currently, young children are exempt from the mask requirement. Although United suggests this means those older than two, the policy has been somewhat relaxed. Now, children two and older must wear masks.
I’m divided on this. Like potty training, I’m sure I can eventually get my three-year-old son to not only keep a mask on but embrace wearing it. Yet this is not easy task. Augustine resists masks almost as much as he resists suspenders (don’t get me started…). More importantly, most masks are not made for young children. All of our masks fall right off his face. We’ll now look into securing children’s sized masks for him, since this mask requirement will not be going away anytime soon.
CONCLUSION
The good news is that most people already wear masks throughout the airport and do not have to be told to do so. Even better, masks no longer carry the political stigma they did early on. Thus, this policy is fine but is more or less already in place. As for forcing two-year-olds to wear masks? We’ll see how that one goes…
image: United Airlines
Our 4 y/o son has done surprisingly well with mask wearing. Not perfect, but much better than I expected.
Does united control its gate area? In other words can they actually enforce their policy? I suppose they can not let me on board, but if the airport doesn’t mandate masking they can’t specifically at their gate area correct?
(I’m actually very pro mask, this is just curiosity)
Yes, in most US airports the airlines directly lease the gate rooms and ticket lobby areas, and even if it’s not directly under lease it would be a common gate leased during the operation of a flight by the airline which allows them to enforce whatever policies they want. That being said, many major airports now have mask policies in effect as soon as you walk in from the curb. I’m sure there will be plenty of ppl trying to test this in the coming days.
You mean children including the president ?
yes the enforce it. My friend who has flown United all summer just got kick off United with her 2 year old. Even though they held her in their arms and placed the mast over her face they would allow them to fly and then…..continued to send their belongings to NY. They had to beg for the car seat to be removed from the plane.
Good! Everyone including children need to get used to wearing masks in public. Just like wearing a seatbelt… Kids are not excempt from getting and transmitting the virus.
You guys need to do some damn research. You. Ant force kids to be smothered. OSHA federal law states that 19.5 levels of oxygen are required without exertion. Which any mask is below that. You guys are incompetent and clearly have no children you care about. You would rather them smothered. Wake Up America. It’s all planned to shut down the US and make you obey like the dogs you clearly are.
EM is so confident. I wonder how many kids he or she has raised.
EM has no kids and probably loves this plandemic
this policy IS NOT fine and the fact that you try to normalize it is sick and abusive.